Amounts of chromium found in Tainan farms, Tainan City mayor deems it safe for planting crops

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/04/03
By: Chris Chang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) held a press conference with several environmental nonprofits on April 1, accusing Tainan City government of allowing corn-harvesting even though the farmland is gravely polluted by chromium, a metal which causes respiratory problems and kidney damage in humans.

In February, Tainan Community College disclosed the issue of stainless steel waste in corn farms throughout Houbi,Tainan. Investigators categorized three areas of a farm based on how well the corn grew and found the concentration of chromium was pegged as below 180 parts per million (ppm), 650 ppm and above 2000 ppm.

In some areas, the concentration even hit 3300 ppm, way above the average of 0.2 ppm found in Taiwan's farmlands.

However, the city's environmental bureau revealed in an article on March 23, that test results showed that the toxicity levels in the local soil, groundwater, and corn in the same area were all below the maximum limit. Tainan City Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) promised the land was safe to grow crops.    [FULL  STORY]